The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is a federal agency that works to protect consumers from fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices. The organization has been authorized by the government to enforce various legislation, such as the Health Breach Notification Rule (HBN Rule), the Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (Safeguards Rule), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In 2021, the FTC took two actions that signaled its desire to expand its role in setting and enforcing cybersecurity and data privacy standards, clarifying the scope of the HBN Rule and amending the Safeguards Rule to strengthen the data security requirements for financial institutions.
